Festivals

The event was ponsored by the Maine Folklife Center, the first annual Folk Traditions Festival was held November 6-7, 1998 at the University of Maine in Orono. The festival featured musicians and dancers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Some examples of the music performed were Cape Breton fiddle music and song selections in English and Gaelic are played with talking interspersed throughout.

MF209 contains fieldwork and other materials collected by folklorist Millie Rahn from 1996-2008 in the course of contract work she did in Maine for various funding bodies, most especially “Come See What’s Cooking in Hancock County” a week-long tour culminating in a Saturday festival October 3, 1998, produced by Hancock Country Planning Commission.

Interviews from the three years (2002-2004) that the festival on the Bangor Waterfront was part of the National Folk Festival. Wordwork, knitting, and wool were some of the topics discussed in these interviews.

Accessions related to the American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront 2005 - 2016 (after it ceased to be the National Folk Festival). After 2016 the Folklife Area was cut due to budget considerations.